New screening for fertility donors (Channel 4) New guidelines were published to screen sperm, egg and embryo donors for disease. The guide includes new rules to cut down the risk of passing on the human form of mad cow disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). [News Source]

Why Are Deer Being Smuggled into Texas? (Muzi) Why Are Deer Being Smuggled into Texas? 2009-01-08 The sight of deer munching in suburban gardens is a common one across America, particularly in places like Texas' hill country, where at holiday time the ubiquitous roadside deer-warning signs are decorated with round red stickers by an anonymous artist in an homage to Rudolph, the most famous deer of all. [News Source]

Humane Society opposes meat industry challenge. The National Humane Society has criticized a legal challenge from major meat industry trade groups against an amended California law designed to prevent animals too sick to stand from entering the meat supply. [News Source]

Processor looking, but not touching (Bangor Daily News) LIMESTONE, Maine — Potato processing giant Lamb Weston has no immediate plans to develop a facility in Maine, although the company continues to watch economic and agricultural activity in the state. [News Source]

Three Northwest Kansas Deer Test Positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (Kansas City InfoZine) KDWP awaiting lab results on more samples from 2008 deer season [News Source]

Study On Origin Of Mutation That Causes Fatal Familiar Insomnia (Medical News Today) A PhD thesis at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) has studied the origin of the mutation that causes Fatal Familiar Insomnia (FFI). In the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country there is a high rate of carriers of this mutation 50%of all the cases registered in the whole of Spain. [News Source]

Not All Vets Treat Pets — For Some It’s About Homeland Security (Lexington Clipper-Herald) (ARA) - Anthrax. Biological attacks. Exotic diseases. These and many other issues are making headlines as the world we live in seems to get smaller and smaller. Yet there is a dedicated group of scientists who are confronting these, and many other, threats each and every day. [News Source]